In response to the Senate Intelligence Committee's appalling though sadly not surprising CIA torture report, Ben Emmerson, the UN's special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, has called for the prosecution of senior CIA and US officials who signed off on the gruesome interrogation techniques. He stated, "The fact that the policies revealed in this report were authorized at a high level within the U.S. government provides no excuse whatsoever. Indeed, it reinforces the need for criminal accountability."